The Ro-Na Theatre in downtown Ironton hosted a free community screening of the 2006 film We Are Marshall on Thursday, marking its first official movie screening in more than 50 years. The showing capped an 18-year push by local volunteers to bring the Art Deco movie palace back from near-ruin, and it gave residents their first chance to watch a full-length film inside the historic auditorium since the theater went dark in the 1970s.
According to Fox8, the screening was offered free to the community to celebrate the theater's return to film projection after decades without one. The event was also detailed in a Facebook post from local resident Rick Jansen, who noted it was the first time since 1974 that the Ro-Na Theater and Conference Center would host a movie for the public.
From Art Deco Showpiece to Auto Parts Store
The theater's story stretches back to August 9, 1949, when it opened as one of southern Ohio's premier entertainment venues, built at a cost of $300,000 with 1,000 cushioned seats, state-of-the-art air conditioning, and an opening-night feature titled Once More My Darling, according to the Briggs Lawrence County Public Library. That mid-century prominence didn't last. After the theater closed in 1973, the building was converted into an auto parts store before sitting vacant for over a decade, and a roof collapse during that vacancy damaged the original hand-painted interior murals, per the Ironton Tribune's reporting.
Water damage from the collapsed roof threatened to destroy the building entirely before the city stepped in. Ownership transferred from the Hampton family to the City of Ironton in February 2008, after which the volunteer group Friends of Ironton took over management and development of the property as a non-profit cultural venue, the Tribune's coverage notes. That municipal ownership proved crucial, opening the door for the city to apply for government restoration grants that a private owner couldn't easily access.
A Marquee Relit, A Hollywood Premiere
Progress crept forward for years. In May 2014, the theater's historic neon marquee was relit for the first time in 40 years, and that July the venue hosted a red-carpet premiere for the CBS drama Extant, created by Ironton native Mickey Fisher, according to the same Tribune account. It was a rare flash of Hollywood glamour during a restoration that otherwise unfolded slowly, largely on the backs of local volunteers who worked on the facility for nearly two decades before the doors formally reopened.
That momentum finally broke through in 2024, when a $2.7 million state grant through Ohio's Appalachian Community Grant Program and Wonderful Waterfronts Initiative funded the final phase of the theater's physical reconstruction, the Tribune reported. The grant was part of a larger $5.27 million state revitalization package awarded to Ironton in May 2024, which also funded riverfront multi-use trails and sea walls along the Ohio River, according to the Ohio Senate. State lawmakers had targeted waterfront towns across Appalachian Ohio for this kind of economic development funding.
Modernizing a 1949 Landmark
With money in hand, architecture firm Schooley Caldwell modernized the 1949 facility by leveling the main auditorium floor for multi-use events, expanding the stage, reconfiguring balcony seating, and installing ADA-accessible restrooms. The redesign, described by the firm, preserved the building's historic character while converting it from a single-screen cinema into a versatile community center capable of hosting concerts and theatrical productions alongside film screenings.
One technical hurdle remained even after the structural work wrapped up: showing actual movies again required modern digital projection equipment. Friends of Ironton solved that in 2026 with a $50,000 grant from T-Mobile earmarked specifically for a modern digital projector and surround sound system, the Tribune's reporting shows. The corporate grant removed the last barrier standing between the restored building and a working movie theater.
The Ro-Na held its official grand reopening on June 25, 2026, complete with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, open-house tours, and live musical performances. Thursday's screening of We Are Marshall came three months later, giving Ironton a full-circle moment: a theater once gutted and left to decay now standing as a functioning cultural hub in the heart of downtown.
